Innocent bystanders still die in a "gun free countries"

Gun free countries aren't free of guns or free.
After the freedom has been removed from the law abiding, criminals are still armed, and still willing to kill people. When they try to do so, innocent people may still get caught in the crossfire, and die.

Gun victim shot 'phoning sister'
"Magda Pniewska, 26, was caught in the cross-fire between two gunmen in New Cross, south London, on Tuesday"

In response, the mayor wants to make it illegal to purchase replica handguns, because they could be converted to functional firearms. Flawless plan, people won't buy replica guns because they are illegal, so they can no longer convert them into functional firearms, which is already illegal ... golden.

This is of course, assuming that people really are converting replica's to functional firearms. I didn't think that the materials used for replica's were able to stand up to the pressures that real guns are exposed to. Ill trust BBC to be accurate enough here. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if they (the criminals) were actually manufacturing their own guns, and using a handful of parts stripped from the replicas, such as the trigger group and grips, as I honestly can't comprehend why somebody would include a proper barrel in a replica.

Are you aware of just how easy it is to make a functional firearm? Anybody with some basic machine shop tools and the knowledge on how to use them can theoretically set up a gun factory in his garage. As a chemist, I can tell you that it's even easier to make propellant powder (single base, double base, with or without regulators, you name it), and marginally harder to make reliable percussive caps.

Banning guns hasn't worked so far, so instead of following through and banning toys too, could you -petty please- try looking for something that actually has a chance of working?
I don't blame them for trying to ban guns in the first place, I blame them for not repealing the ban after it had been observed to not work.
Now maybe, just maybe, could you try better criminal rehabilitation programs? An actively enforced way of fighting unemployment? A more deterring penal system, better education, legislation based on hope instead of hatred? Common sense rather than scaremongering?

-"Hey look, this key doesn't seem to open the lock, why don't we try another one?"
-"Are you crazy? Let's just twist it more violently!"


It's called tunnel vision, and it hasn't saved any lives so far.